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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
This is a very important book that is worthwhile reading for anyone who is trying to understand the heroin epidemic in America, and the convergence of forces that led to its explosion. It's thorough and well researched and I liked that Quinones tried to tell the story from multiple perspectives.
Unfortunately, while I wanted to give this book a high recommendation, it's so repetitive and poorly edited that it the middle portion becomes a total slog. The same stories are told over and over, often with identically worded sentences only a few lines apart, which I found annoying. It's as if each chapter was meant to be extracted for individual use without needing to read other chapters. If it's meant for educational and classroom purposes only then that's fine, but when reading the book as a whole, it's incredibly frustrating. Things pick up at the end when Quinones moves on to how American towns are trying to rebuild and combat heroin addiction, but it just takes way too long to get there.
Yet another book on my shelf that would have been better served having 50 pages trimmed.
Unfortunately, while I wanted to give this book a high recommendation, it's so repetitive and poorly edited that it the middle portion becomes a total slog. The same stories are told over and over, often with identically worded sentences only a few lines apart, which I found annoying. It's as if each chapter was meant to be extracted for individual use without needing to read other chapters. If it's meant for educational and classroom purposes only then that's fine, but when reading the book as a whole, it's incredibly frustrating. Things pick up at the end when Quinones moves on to how American towns are trying to rebuild and combat heroin addiction, but it just takes way too long to get there.
Yet another book on my shelf that would have been better served having 50 pages trimmed.
Downgraded a couple stars because it was awfully repetitive at times, but still really interesting and thought-provoking.
Actual rating 3.5. I wonder if I would have gotten more out of reading the adult book rather than the YA version.
Stephanie Moon recommendation. This book was so interesting. I found myself talking about it regularly, relaying the highlights and the interesting facts. Highly recommend.
3.5 stars. Very scary reality laid out in depth. Phrases that were repeated verbatim several times throughout the book were pretty annoying, but the overall story really kept my attention.
informative
medium-paced
This is also a good book on the opioid epidemic but I've listened to multiple books on this now and the information just wasn't particularly new to me.
informative
I think my new favorite genre is narrative nonfiction. Dreamland takes the opiate epidemic and makes it real with human stories.
This book made me see the hypocrisy, though, of how Black and White addicts are/were treated differently. The author Sam Quinones talks about it explicitly - very briefly, but it was clear while reading the differences between the treatment of Black and White even though the book focused solely on White addicts. It’s amazing how our country rallied around White addicts and became much softer on crime, but Black addicts are still looked at as needing tough on crime laws.
Young adult adaptation: I’d recommend 7th grade and up.
This book made me see the hypocrisy, though, of how Black and White addicts are/were treated differently. The author Sam Quinones talks about it explicitly - very briefly, but it was clear while reading the differences between the treatment of Black and White even though the book focused solely on White addicts. It’s amazing how our country rallied around White addicts and became much softer on crime, but Black addicts are still looked at as needing tough on crime laws.
Young adult adaptation: I’d recommend 7th grade and up.
Interesting and informative, but the various locations and individuals became hard to keep track of after a while. At times, it also seemed repetitive and jumped around, making it hard to follow.